Theodore Friend

Published Articles

Religions have supported and promoted gender inequality. But such matters are now being intensely reconsidered, and women are fighting back.

Theodore Friend is a historian, novelist, teacher, and the former president of Swarthmore College. He is also the president emeritus of the Eisenhower Fellowships, and continues to serve as a trustee of its national and international board. After several books on Southeast Asia and Japan, he has shifted his focus to how whole populations conceive of women, and how they conceive of God. The latest of his books (2012) is based on travel and over 200 interviews in Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey: Woman, Man and God in Modern Islam.